# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1902_S107
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Tenth Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1902. 107

the LORD took him from his labor to blessed rest. At his funeral the
deaf-mute mourned along with many others. Indeed, it seemed to them as
if they had lost even more than others, for they called him "The
Deaf-Mute Friend" — that is, the friend of the deaf-mute. May his memory
remain among us in blessing!

"In the blessed Pastor Reinke our mission to the deaf-mute has lost its
founder and its most zealous promoter among us. But it has not
perished. It is a cause of the LORD, who makes use of human beings as
his tools. The commission can report, with praise and thanks to the
LORD, that he has given grace for its advancement. Where three years
ago only 3 workers stood in this part of the vineyard, today there are
7. In 18 different places the deaf-mute are regularly preached to, while
a good many more places are served occasionally by our missionaries.

"This mission presently numbers four organized congregations. In
Chicago stands the oldest of them, Our Savior's congregation, with 18
voting and 47 communicant members. Pastor Arthur Reinke is its pastor.
Here a chapel of its own is an urgent necessity. In Milwaukee the
Immanuel congregation has formed, numbering 23 voting and 45 communicant
members. This congregation has a chapel of its own, built from the
gifts collected by the pupils of our parochial schools. Gifts for this
building flowed in so abundantly that about $1,000.00 was left over. The
commission asks the Reverend Synod for permission to use this sum for
building a chapel in Chicago. The pastoral conference in Chicago
recommends it.

"The congregation at Milwaukee has itself erected a parsonage, on
whose payment it is diligently at work. The chapel has repeatedly been
so filled with deaf-mute worshipers that chairs had to be brought in.
Mr. Pastor T. Wangerin serves this congregation. He also preaches
monthly at Racine, Oshkosh, Sheboygan, and Neenah, Wis., and has also
visited Saginaw, Mich., and Winona, Minn.

"Under Pastor Boll a congregation has now also organized in
Louisville. He also preaches regularly at Dayton, Cincinnati, and
Indianapolis.

"At South Bend, Ind., a small deaf-mute congregation has arisen through
Pastor Theo. Claus. Besides his hearing congregation at Elkhart, Ind.,
where he must also teach school, he has, in a self-denying manner,
served the deaf-mute at his home town of South Bend, Ind., and at
Toledo, O. He often comes home at midnight and goes to his school in
the morning. Only very recently could the commission persuade him to
accept a small sum of money from the mission treasury.